Angola became a Cold War battleground, with Unita backed by the US and the apartheid government in South Africa, while Angola's ruling MPLA party was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.

The rebel leader was eventually killed in clashes with state forces in 2002.

'Disappointed'

The family was seeking €1m ($1.1m; £0.75m) in damages.

"We are disappointed," Savimbi's son Cheya was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Who was Jonas Savimbi? By Justin Pearce

In the last years of the Angolan war, Jonas Savimbi became a symbol to the outside world for everything that was wrong in Angola.

Although it's difficult to separate the truth from the propaganda and the "Heart of Darkness" stereotypes that stick to many African conflicts, Savimbi's reputation is based on some confirmed incidents.

Suspected witches were burnt alive at Savimbi's headquarters in the early 1980s.

Fred Bridgland, Savimbi's previously admiring biographer, later wrote a horrifying tale of the murder of the Chingunji family who had fallen from grace with Savimbi.

Yet the Angolan civil war lasted for 27 years and both sides committed acts of brutality.

It would be wrong to pin everything on one man, who is still remembered with awe by many who lived under the rule of Unita, and admired by a generation that has grown up since the war.

Justin Pearce is a former BBC Angola correspondent, now at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge